


Make Way For Mother Hen

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo 2018 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Brooklyn Brothers, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Domestic Avengers, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I love Tony's nicknames for Rhodey, Iron Bros, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, MIT bros, Mostly just sick and miserable/comfort, Post-Avengers (2012), Protective Tony Stark, Reference to Edwin Jarvis, Sickfic, Sniffle Soup, Tony Stark Has A Heart, sorta hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 06:50:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15600708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: Rhodey has nursed Tony back to health plenty of times, including after the most recent bout with whatever bug Tony managed to pick up.Tony's not exactlygleefulwhen it's his turn to be Mother Hen... but he's not hating it either.  He's going to make Rhodey drink so many terrible smoothies...





	Make Way For Mother Hen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flight_Of_Icarus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flight_Of_Icarus/gifts), [Daten_Shi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daten_Shi/gifts).



> My darling Ica kinda pawned this prompt off on me, and I jumped at it. It's also for Daten, because she had a bad day and wanted a "safe, smiling tony with lots of people he considers family." Here you go, my lovelies!
> 
> Written for the Tony Stark Bingo, this takes care of my Square A5: “I regret nothing” (Weekly roundup info in the bottom notes)

“Tones, seriously, how many times am I going to have to nurse you back to health before you stop doing this _‘I caught a superbug and now I’m on death’s doorstep’_ thing?”

“Shaddup Rhodey, it's not a superbug but I’m too sick for this nagging.” Or, well, that’s what he was trying to say, but his sinuses were so clogged it came out a little different. Served him right.

“Uh oh, Nursemaid Rhodey is over. Abort, abort.”

Natasha snorted at Clint’s words as the two of them came into the communal kitchen, smiling over at Rhodey and Tony. “Told them you would be. Jarvis threatened to call a Code Mother Hen last night. I should have put money on it.”

“Traitor.” Tony mumbled into his mug, his tired eyes not leaving the movie on the huge TV.

“Yes, I’m a genuine turncoat, sir.”

Rhodey grinned at the AI’s sass, and tapped a finger on the mug. “You need to actually drink it, not just hold it.”

Tony made a face. “It’s that tea your mom makes, and even if I can’t smell or really taste anything right now, I am already having flashbacks.”

Rhodey put his hands on his hips. “How dare you insult my mama’s tea!”

“It’s not an insult, it’s a heavy amount of awe and terror. It works, but I’ll have to replace every single taste bud I have to get the taste out of my mouth, and do you have any idea how expensive it is to do that, cabbage patch?”

Rhodey snorted (but didn’t disagree) as he tipped the mug towards Tony’s mouth with a finger on the bottom edge, watching him take a gulp before it spilled. 

His grimace was delightful to behold. “Oh, yuck, it’s even worse than I remember!”

“Drama queen.”

Natasha was grinning as she got a juice out of the fridge and cracked the cap, glancing at Clint. “Can you just imagine those two in college, doing this exact same thing just in a dorm room?”

Clint was leaning over the small pot on the stove and making a face, leftovers of whatever kind of tea Rhodey was trying to coax down Tony’s throat still steaming. “Yes, I can, and also, this is the most vile stuff I have ever smelled in my life. Poor Tony.”

Natasha laughed when an empty tissue box came flying across the room and hit Clint square in the back of the head.

“I heard that, Barton!”

* * *

“Sir, I’ve received a message from Rox-E, Colonel Rhodes’ AI.”

Tony didn’t look up from the delicate circuits he was soldering as he answered Jarvis. “Yeah, he alright?”

“He is uninjured, but Rox-E reports that he is quite ill. It appears to be similar to the illness you contracted two weeks ago, sir.”

“Yeah, that’d give it lots of time to incubate. Where’s he headed?”

“At the moment, he’s not terribly coherent, according to Rox-E. She hesitated to fly him home in this condition.”

“That’s my hypocritical honey bear, taking care of himself. Have her reroute him here, and see what you can do about reconfiguring the unsuiting gear to his measurements. I’d rather not pry him out piece by piece. We got any bone-in chicken in this joint?” Tony had already set aside his tools and was on the move, wiping his hands off as best he could on a rag as he went.

“The deep freezer adjacent to the communal kitchen has several whole chickens.”

“Can we pressure cook that?”

“It may be a better idea to have an unfrozen bird delivered, sir.”

“Whatever you say, number one. What’s Rhodey’s ETA?”

“Twenty-seven minutes.”

“Yeah, send out a rush order for some groceries. We need anything else for Sniffle Soup?”

“I shall add the ingredients we don’t have to the list. It will be approximately forty-five minutes until delivery.”

“Sounds good. Have Dum-E make Rhodey a smoothie or something to hold him over. Preferably without motor oil.”

“I will supervise him closely.”

* * *

“I’m fine.”

Or, well, Rhodey’s first words when his face mask was removed more closely resembled, _“I’b fide.”_

“Yeah, you sound super. Is it hard to think with your sinuses pressing on your brain like that?”

Rhodey’s face was noticeably pale and shiny with fever sweat as the unsuiting rig dismantled the War Machine armor from around him. “I can’t believe you rerouted me mid-flight.”

Tony was walking backwards next to him, and he held out a water bottle as Rhodey stepped off the end of the platform. “When your AI calls my AI in a panic, you better bet I’m gonna reroute your ass here. Now drink this.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes (and promptly listed to one side), but worked on sipping at the bottle of water while Tony got himself tucked under an arm and led them inside.

“I’m never gonna hear the end of this, am I?”

“Nope, I am gonna be milking this for everything it’s worth for the rest of your life, sickie-boo.” 

Tony took them down to the workshop first, plotzing Rhodey in the padded dentist chair he still used sometimes when he had to do work on the arc reactor. “Jarvis, scan this idiot. Rhodey, you got any meds in your system?”

Rhodey was utterly lax on the chair, mouth open and wondering how it was possible to feel this crappy. “Nope.”

“Figures.” Tony shuffled through a drawer and pulled out a box of decongestant meds. “How’s he doing, J?”

“Temperature of 102.8F/39.3C, detectable sinus pressure, elevated heart rate.”

“Same thing I had?”

“By all appearances, yes. Further lab work would be required for a definitive conclusion. Would you care for a urine sample?”

Tony shook his head as he smirked and punched a couple tablets out of the blister packet, clearly getting ready for a lecture, when Rhodey’s stomach rumbled audibly.

Tony’s eyes narrowed at him in suspicion. “When was the last time you ate?”

Rhodey squinted as he considered it, brain feeling sluggish. “Uh… well, I had lunch yesterday, and then I had a mission, and—”

The infuriated, pinch-lipped look Tony gave him would have terrified lesser men that hadn’t been dealing with it since MIT.

Rhodey chuckled weakly, and let his head loll over onto his shoulder to meet his best friend’s gaze. “When’s the last time you slept?”

Tony held up a finger to silence him. “Don’t even go there with me, Mr. I-Haven’t-Eaten-Since-Yesterday. What kind of hypocritical behavior is this?”

“You’re cute when you’re mad.”

Tony rolled his eyes and picked up the smoothie Dum-E had just deposited next to him, popping the plastic straw U held out into it. “Not gonna be swayed by compliments, platypus, now shut up and drink this.”

Rhodey made a face as he looked at the ominously green contents of the glass. “I’m not drinking that, Tones, I know Dum-E made that.”

Dum-E had been rolling away, but he stopped and made a sad noise and lowered his claw, managing to look like a kicked puppy.

“No, Dum-E, I didn’t mean it…”

“Stop making my bots unhappy and drink this. I had Jarvis supervise, it’s fine. No motor oil this time.”

“I’m not gonna—” Rhodey was cut off as Tony jammed the straw in his mouth.

“Do it, or I’ll call your mom and get her tea recipe.”

Rhodey glowered, but he did take a sip of the smoothie. And grimaced.

Dum-E made another dejected noise, and Tony laughed as Rhodey struggled to smile at the bot around a grimace.

“It’s okay, Dum-E, he likes it. He’s gonna prove it by drinking another one later.”

Rhodey served up his best scowl, but Tony just rolled his eyes and put two pills into his hand. “Come on, take these and let’s go upstairs. I need access to a stove for my next trick.”

* * *

“Bucky, excellent, go stir the soup for me.”

Bucky froze at the head of the hall into the communal floor, brought out of a half-daydream about a cheeseburger and a milkshake by Tony’s brisk demand. He glanced around, noting a huge steaming silver pot on the stove, and then nearly laughed when he saw what Tony was doing across the room.

Rhodes… oh man, the poor guy was wrapped in probably six blankets, nothing but his head poking out from the bundle, a washcloth on his forehead and a thermometer sticking out of his mouth.

“Hey, other James.” He mumbled around the thermometer, and Tony promptly bopped him on the head.

“No speaking with that in your mouth. Soup, Freezer Burn, stir the soup! If those noodles stick, I am blaming it on you!”

Jumping a little, Bucky followed the order without questioning it, and made sure to run the wooden spoon along the bottom of the pot to keep anything from sticking. The soup, chicken noodle by the looks of it, smelled… fantastic, actually, and he was going to be seriously impressed if Tony had made it himself. It kind of reminded him of his Ma’s cooking, which was a nice slice of memory for a change.

He caught the sound of a tinny sort of beep, and glanced over his shoulder to see Tony take the thermometer out of Rhodes’ mouth.

“Hey, check you out, you’re no longer pulling a 102 degree fever.”

“Don’t think I don’t know that Jarvis can check my temperature just fine without that thing.” Rhodes sassed, his voice thick with stuffy sinuses and shaking from the chills, but Bucky couldn’t help but notice that the guy made no move to get out of his blanket cocoon.

“Jarvis can be wrong sometimes, be nice, he’s sensitive about it.”

Bucky’s shoulders shook with a chuckle as he continued to stir the soup, listening to the antics going on behind him.

“The noodles done yet over there?” Tony called in his direction.

“Uh…” Bucky fished around for a minute before he could single out one of the twirly noodles, blowing on it to cool it down before popping it into his mouth. “Seems okay?”

“Great.” Tony paused, and he had a grin in his voice when he spoke again, at Rhodes this time. “You need help getting your arm out, or you want me to spoon feed it to you?”

“Go away.”

Tony laughed softly as he came into the kitchen, getting a couple bowls out of the cupboard. “It’s just chicken noodle soup, but you can have some if you want. I made a lot, just in case.”

“It smells good.”

“Jarvis’ namesake’s recipe. Sniffle Soup. Cures what ails ya.” Tony got out a third bowl and set the stack next to the stove. “You mind dishing up?”

“Nope.” Bucky dug around in the drawers until he found a soup ladle, and carefully served up three bowls of the soup. 

Tony supplied spoons and whisked two of the bowls away. “There’s some of that fancy whatever grain bread Bruce likes in the cupboard, or I think we’ve got crackers too. Go nuts.”

“Thanks.” Bucky got himself some of both, a buttered slice of the spelt bread Bruce favored and a sleeve of round crackers. And a few slices of cheese because he could. The soup was exactly as good as it smelled.

"Is this real chicken broth?"

"I hope so, I cooked a real chicken." Tony was in nursemaid mode, alternating between hovering over Rhodey as he slurped his soup or going to fetch things. Napkins, a fresh water bottle, a few of Bucky’s crackers. Rhodey rolled his eyes.

“Tony, I’m fine.”

“Shut up and eat your soup before I order you an enema.”

Bucky was not expecting that, he snorted right into his soup and was that a noodle coming out his nose?

“That’s a good look on you, Barnes. Jarvis, take a picture.”

Bucky covered his nose and tried to stop laughing, shaking his head and wondering if there was a protocol for what to do with food that tried to exit back out the body via nostril?

“Barnes, do you require assistance? Lady Natasha has showed me how to do a Heimlich maneuver.”

Thor had clearly followed his nose into the communal kitchen, and he looked at the pot on the stove with interest as Bucky shook his head (he liked his ribs right where they were, thanks) and finished wiping soup off his face. 

“Is this for anyone?” Thor inquired, glancing around.

Tony nodded from the couch. “Go for it, Fabio, I made extra.”

“Me too?” Bruce had wandered in as well, glasses slightly askew and lab coat still on, obviously fresh from doing some science-ing.

“Hey Brucie-Bear! Yep, help yourself. I let Bucky have some of your bread.”

Bucky froze with a bite of said bread in his mouth, but Bruce waved his hand. “No problem, anyone can share. I just really like it with peanut butter.”

Around the time Thor and Bruce were both finishing their third bowls of soup and leaving, Bucky had migrated over to the other side of the huge sectional in the living room, still munching on crackers and cheese as he flipping through some of Jarvis’ suggested movies.

Rhodes had gotten over his case of the chills, no longer shaking and looking sleepy in his blanket mound. “Ugh, I want some coffee.”

Tony took their empty soup bowls into the kitchen. “You don’t need coffee. Drink some more water.”

“I will if you will.”

Tony looked utterly exasperated as he came back and flipped over the washcloth on Rhodes’ forehead. “Stop trying to mother hen me while I’m mother henning you!”

“I would recommend that both of you consume liquids that don’t contain caffeine, sirs.”

Tony’s jaw dropped and he glared at one of Jarvis’ concealed cameras with betrayal. Before he could utter a word though, Bucky chimed in without looking over.

“He’s right. You two drink too much coffee.”

Two furious pairs of brown eyes fixed on him, and Bucky had to hide a smile as he ducked his head, shoving another cracker-and-cheese sandwich into his mouth. “Ghostbusters, anyone?”

“Ooh, do the new one!” Tony encouraged, flopping down next to Rhodes and toeing off his shoes. “The guy they got looks just like Thor, it’s great.”

* * *

Only about half the movie passed before Bucky was the only one left awake. Natasha had snuck in at some point for some soup, pouring it into a mug and disappearing again without so much as a sound after she tossed a small smile at Bucky and a fond look at Tony and Rhodes. Steve was the next one to show up, flushed and sweaty from working out in the gym. He saw the three spread out on the couch and grinned.

“Uh oh. Is Tony sick again? You get roped into Rhodey’s mother hen routine?”

Bucky kept his voice low so as not to wake the other two. “Nah, it was mostly Tony, actually. Rhodey’s sick.”

Steve’s eyebrows rose so far it was a miracle his eyelids didn’t go with them. “Oh, wow, Tony must have been… wow.”

“Yeah. That sums it up pretty well.”

“You make soup?” Steve was sniffing the air, looking hopeful.

“You can have some, and no, I didn’t make it. Tony did.”

“He cooks?” The eyebrows were making a bid for escape again.

Bucky shrugged. “Sometimes, I guess.”

“Is it any good?”

“Better than anything you ever tried to make, Rogers.”

Steve pitched his sweaty towel at Bucky, who swiped it aside with ease but jolted the couch enough to rouse one of the other two.

“Movie over?” Tony mumbled, rubbing at his eyes and shifting as if to sit up.

Bucky shot a glare at Steve as he spoke softly. “Nah, still going. Go back to sleep or Rhodes will wake up too.”

Tony cast a bleary-eyed look at Bucky, like he was deciding whether or not to call him on his bullshit, then just shrugged and snuggled back in, curled up against the Rhodes-ball of blankets.

Bucky scowled at Steve again and pressed a finger to his lips. Steve grinned and held his hands up in surrender, getting himself a bowl of soup and joining Bucky on the couch.

“So what, you’re the watchdog now?” He whispered, eyes on the TV screen.

“One doesn’t sleep most of the time anyway, and one’s legitimately sick. They need a watchdog.” 

Steve nodded, pulling a couple of slightly smushed Twinkies out of his pocket and handing one over to Bucky. “Fair enough. Hey, you ever noticed, that guy looks just like Thor?”

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Make Way For Mother Hen  
> Square Filled: A5: "I regret nothing"  
> Rating: General  
> Warnings: None  
> Summary: Rhodey has nursed Tony back to health plenty of times, including after this most recent bought with whatever bug Tony managed to pick up. Tony's not exactly _gleeful_ when it's his turn to be Mother Hen... but he's not hating it either. He's going to make Rhodey drink so many terrible smoothies...  
>  Created For: @tonystarkbingo


End file.
